Anyone work intake/receiving?

In the jail I work at, every nurse does intake screening. We don't have one specific nurse assigned to that duty. We are responsible to do the intake screening on all of the inmates that come in during our shift. This number varies. Sometimes you will only screen one or two inmates in an eight hour shift, other times, you can screen 10 or 15! If one of the counties in our jurisdiction has a big drug bust, lookout! Anyway, it consists of us going over to Booking where the inmate is booked/processed into the facility by the booking clerk and booking officer. After that process is complete, we do our intake screening which includes a receiving screening, suicide screening. We get a detailed medical history, assess for ETOH/chemical dependency, ensure they are not suicidal...they sign a consent for treatment. We give them a PPD and then they go to the pod for housing, provided they are not on a suicide watch. We then return to medical...if they are on meds we verify those with the pharmacy and call our doctor for orders to see what he wants them on. If they have never been there before we make them a completely new chart. If they have been there before, they have a chart on file, so we just add the new information/forms to that chart. We chart a screening note detailing their medical hx, etc. Much like an admission note you would do on a patient at a hospital. We place their name and OID # (offender ID #) and the county they are from, and whether or not they got a PPD in our census/ppd books. We also give any pertinent information to our chronic care nurse if they have a chronic condition, such as HTN or DM that will need monitored. So, basically, the officer and some people think that it is a fairly simple process, but it does entail a lot of work!

What do you do when someone wants to refuse a PPD with no hx of a past pos? That alone is one of my biggest conflicts. At the intake at our jail, between 7p and 7a we screen a minimum of 40 inmates each night and as many as 150. It warrants two nurses working at once in the booking area and that is our assigned duty station for the entire shift. From what I understand the day shift is much slower. PHS used to have the contract at our jail but they lost all of their contracts in our state and CCS (Correct Care Solutions) took over. From what I have seen so far, CCS is far more organized than PHS.

To answer your question regarding refusal of PPD, yes this happens at our jail, too. It kills me! These big guys come in covered with tattoos and then you try to give them a PPD and they say..."I'm afraid of needles!" I say bologna...you are covered in tattoos. I have had several answers to that...some say "Well, I was drunk when I got those"...okay, I can have more sympathy for that than the idiots who have said "Yeah but I know their needles were sterile"....okay!!?? You just watched me take the thing out of a sealed sterile package....HELLO!!! We don't wash these things out and then repackage them!! Anyway, if they continue to refuse they must sign a refusal (which they also refuse to do a lot of times) and they must remain housed in Booking and are not allowed to go to the pod until they comply. We used to have some officers with backbones that would not issue them any pillow or blanket if they refused to cooperate with medical staff, but alas those days are over! We have lost so many good veteran officers as of late, that we now have Romper Room Security running our jail! And it is the fault of the administration....oh, but I won't get started on that tangent...that is a whole other thread!!! Anyway, after a few days in booking, they decide they will comply. Sometimes they get released without ever having one. Also, the officers who do video arraignment will let the magistate know that the inmate has been uncooperative with jail staff, and the magistrates frown on this sort of thing, so usually they decide to comply after that. Well, I have babbled on long enough. Hope I answered you question. :)

I work intake only. We average 75-80 arrests for a 12 hours shift. We also do all of the DNA blood draws.

I work intake only. We average 75-80 arrests for a 12 hours shift. We also do all of the DNA blood draws.

i didnt think that a DNA blood draw by a facility nurse would stand in court? when i worked corrections, we had an outside agency come draw them. the rationale being that nurses have a connection with the inmates and could easily tamper with DNA draws if they wanted to (i mean, come on yall, i have seen way too many nurses who "fell in love" with inmates)....

i remember one facility tried to talk me into drawing DNA's and i said NO WAY and when i referred them to the laws regarding it, they agreed that i was correct and waited for the outside agency to come in to do them.

i didnt think that a DNA blood draw by a facility nurse would stand in court? when i worked corrections, we had an outside agency come draw them. the rationale being that nurses have a connection with the inmates and could easily tamper with DNA draws if they wanted to (i mean, come on yall, i have seen way too many nurses who "fell in love" with inmates)....

i remember one facility tried to talk me into drawing DNA's and i said NO WAY and when i referred them to the laws regarding it, they agreed that i was correct and waited for the outside agency to come in to do them.

I don't know about other states, but in Tennessee, the DNA from the time it is drawn until it is sent to TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation) there is a chain-of-custody that must be followed and since it is ordered by the state, I suppose it is legal but you make a very valid point.

In the intake area at my institution, the nurse gets base vital signs and gathers basic health information. The actual intake physical is done within the first week by a doctor or PA. An inmate can refuse a PPD without a prior history of a positive test (or without confirmation), but he is told that he is subject to quarantine for the duration of his incarceration if he does so. That is usually enough to get Joe Tattoo to roll his left sleeve up.